Photo of German leader addressing UN falsely portrayed as Sri Lanka president

This article is more than one year old.
Published on October 3, 2023 at 08:47
3 min read
By AFP Sri Lanka

A photo of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz speaking to an almost empty conference hall has surfaced in social media posts falsely claiming it shows Sri Lanka's President Ranil Wickremesinghe. The picture, which shows Scholz speaking at the United Nations, drew media attention in Germany, with commentators saying it suggested nobody was interested in Berlin's climate policies.

"Don't ridicule our president for taking Mahindananda and Rohitha to America with him," reads Sinhala-language text overlaid on the post shared on Facebook on September 22.

Sri Lanka's president travelled to New York in September for the UN General Assembly in a delegation that included Mahindananda Aluthgamage and Rohitha Abegunawardhana, two MPs from the ruling Sri Lanka People's Front (SLPP) party.

The pair's participation in the assembly was criticised in Sri Lanka as wasteful spending as the island faces crippling financial struggles (archived link).

They were also part of a previous government during which the country declared bankruptcy in April 2022.

"Can you see, he took them so they will sit in the audience while he talks because there will be no one else," the post adds mockingly.

A screenshot of the false Facebook post captured on September 24, 2023

Similar Facebook post shared the same photo, including here and here, falsely claiming it showed Wickremesinghe speaking to an empty conference hall.

"What a shame on our country. Wickremesinghe ruined his reputation by teaming up with the SLPP," reads one Sinhala-language comment -- referring to Wicremesinghe's ascension to power with SLPP backing following the resignation of former leader Gotabaya Rajapaksa.

Another comment said: "The whole world is laughing."

'Empty rows'

A reverse image search on Google found the photo in an article which said it showed German Chancellor Olaf Scholz -- not Wickremesinghe.

"UN General Assembly: Nobody wants to hear what Scholz says," reads the headline of the article by right-wing German newspaper Junge Freiheit published on September 21 (archived link).

A screenshot of the identical image published in German newspaper Junge Freiheit that shows the chancellor addressing the UN General Assembly

The photo, which is credited to German news agency DPA, is captioned: "Chancellor Olaf Scholz speaks in front of almost empty rows of chairs in New York."

The story says a large delegation from the German government took part in the UN gathering but attendees were not interested in what Scholz had to say.

Bild newspaper also published the photo and credited it to DPA (archived link).

AFP found the image in DPA's photo archives, where the caption reads: "German Chancellor Olaf Scholz speaks to empty rows of seats at the general debate of the UN General Assembly."

DPA did not grant AFP the right to publish a screenshot of the photo.

Below is a screenshot comparison between the image shared in the false posts (left) and the photo used by German media (right):

A screenshot comparison between the image shared in the false posts (left) and the photo used by German media (right)

According to Bild, it is common for world leaders to address a sparsely populated venue at the UN General Assembly. Scholz spoke at 9 pm local time (0100 GMT) and was followed by Japan's prime minister who also spoke to an almost empty hall.

"The hall is only really full when the US president speaks. For all subsequent speakers, it will then become emptier and emptier," Bild reported.

Sri Lankan President Wickremesinghe's address to the General Assembly can be seen in a video published by the UN's official YouTube channel on September 22 (archived link).

Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.

E-mail